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OT - Calling all Utah and vicinity Zags

Your nationally ranked Gonzaga Menís Cross Country team and the Gonzaga Womenís team will be competing in the WCC Championships on Saturday morning at the East Bay Golf Course in Provo.The races get underway at 10 am for the Women followed by the menís race at 11 am.

There is already a sizable alumni contingent coming from out of state. All are welcome and there is no admission charge.

Mods, please leave this here for a bit to give the wider audience a chance to view it. Thanks!

PROVO, Utah Ė James Mwaura's phenomenal freshman cross country season continued with an All-West Coast Conference finish at the 2018 WCC Championships Saturday. The Tacoma, Wash. native became the program's first-ever West Coast Conference Freshman of the Year following the race.

Mwaura paced the No. 26 Zag men to a third place team finish, with a ninth-place individual finish at the East Bay Golf Course. He crossed the line at 23:57.7, after running with the front pack for the majority of the race.

"I think I did pretty well today," Mwaura said. "The competition was as good as it was at Pre-Nationals a few weeks ago, but today's weather was perfect. Our practices this week got us ready to run and I thought our team did well today. We're excited and feel like we are in good position for regionals coming up."

The Gonzaga men entered the race with the program's first-ever national ranking. It's the seventh straight season GU has placed in the top-four. The Bulldogs were picked fourth in the conference's preseason poll. The Zags finished behind No. 2 BYU and No. 5 Portland Saturday.

Gonzaga's Peter Hogan had a second team All-WCC finish in 13th place. The redshirt sophomore finished at 24:11.2, the eighth-fastest time over an 8,000-meter course in program history. It's the first time two Zags have been named All-WCC First or Second Team since 2013.

Yacine Guermali nearly had a second team All-Conference finish, placing 19th at 24:23.7. Bennett Gagnon was 27th with a time of 24:54.8. Scott Kopczynski (31st) finished just ahead of teammate Kellen Manley (32nd). Kopczynski's time was 25:03.9, while Manley finished at 25:04.5.

"We had a good day today and fought hard early," Director of Gonzaga Cross Country Pat Tyson said. "All nine of our guys were in the hunt! James ran to win! He faded a bit, but broke 24 minutes at 4500 feet altitude! He keeps learning and has smart instincts! Peter ran equally courageous to nail down a spot on the second team with his 13th place finish. He finished so strong in a tough competitive situation. Yacine Guermali nearly pulled off a top-15 performance. I know this, the gang ran their hearts out! We had a solid day, but we have more in the tank for Sacramento in roughly two weeks!"

Aimee Piercy paced the GU women with a 29th place finish. She finished with a time of 22:33.1 over the 6K course. Caroline McCarthy (22:54.9) and Katherine Gustafson (23:01.6) were 43rd and 45th. Ally Legard (23:04.7) and Monica Ripple (23:14.6) were right in that pack in 48th and 50th.

"I'm very proud of the effort our women put into today's race," GU women's Head Coach Jake Stewart said. "We came up a little short of what our team goal was. It wasn't a lack of effort on our women's part. This group of women ran tough, with a great attitude and did everything in their power today to have the performance they were hoping for. If we continue to do all those same things as a program year in and year out, we'll make tremendous gains. I'm proud of the way we competed today. I'm proud of this team. We'll continue to move forward from here."

As a team, the Zag women placed ninth. BYU took the team title. The No. 9 Cougars tallied 27 points to take their first title since 2014, their lowest Championship score as a WCC member. Birk-Jarvis, a two-time WCC Runner of the Week in 2018, finished in 19:45.60 for the win. No. 19 Portland placed five runners in the top 20, led by Lauren LaRocco's runner-up finish. The Pilots placed second as a team, followed by San Francisco and Loyola Marymount.

The BYU men won their fourth consecutive West Coast Conference Championship. The Cougars posted a score of 21 points with six in the top-10. Perennial power No. 5 Portland posted its fourth straight runner-up showing, led by Nick Hauger's individual title. Hauger posted a time of 23:20.8 for a convincing win against runner-up Connor McMillan at 23:23.0 who led a quartet of Cougars across the finish line.

The Gonzaga women and men run in the NCAA West Regionals on Nov. 9. The event returns to the Haggin Oaks Golf Course in Sacramento, Calif. The women's 6K race begins at 11 a.m., followed by the men's 10k at noon...